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WEST INDIES LTD.                                    GUILLEN

but it might as well be bitter
without enough to eat.

I've got no place to live
or a woman for the night;
I've got no place to live
or a woman for the night:
all the dogs bark after me
and nobody treats me polite.

A man, when he's a man,
has got to carry a knife;
a man, when he's a man,
has got to carry a knife:
I'm a man, I carried one,
they sent me up for life.

If I could die today,
if I could die today,
if I could die today, oh mother,
how happy I would be!

Oh, I'll give you, give you,
give you, give you,
oh, I'll give you
freedom now!

VI

West Indies! West Indies! West Indies!
A multicephalous
hirsute, copper place where life crawls
slow with dried mud blistering on its hide.
A dungeon
where the feet of every man are tied.
A grotesque throne of trusts and companies,
an asphalt lake, those  iron mines you see,
plantations where the coffee grows up fine,
the ports and docks, the ferry boats and dimes.
This is the place where it's "all right"
if everyone lives pretty bad.
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